November Number$$

I guess you could call me a "numbers man" as my previous three posts all had numbers in their title. November also saw me publish six blog posts - topping the record set just a month earlier in October with five.

But the number I am most excited about is the total income received in November! It is my highest total since going full-time with my voiceover career in January, 2006. I also secured my first agent in November and look forward to what he will "put on my plate."


If you love hockey and numbers like I do, get the book here.

It will be a nice fixture on the coffee table as you can just pick it up and relive some great memories.

As for me, I am going to work now on an e-learning project for one of my great clients on the east coast.

I want to beat November's totals! And I hope YOU do too:)

SABRES: GIMME FIVE!!

Buffalo is on a roll! They won their fifth straight - tonight against Washington, 3-1. Number 55, Jochen Hecht, had 2 goals and an assist. His first goal came at 10:55 in the first period. The Sabres looked sharp in sweeping Montreal Friday and Saturday night. We won at home first, 4-2, then backup goalie Jocelyn Thibault shutout Montreal in his hometown,
3-0. He played for the Habs from 1995 - 1999.

Next up for the Sabres is St. Louis, a team I have supported as a fan over the years. In fact, I wore my Blues jersey proudly over the weekend as they beat Vancouver 3-1. Jochen Hecht actually played for St. Louis between 1998 - 2001. The Blues will be tough; they have won five in a row at home - BUT unfortunately for them they will be playing in Buffalo Wednesday night. There is a number 55 on St. Louis too: Christian Backman. Buffalo fans will remember another blueliner who is there now: Jay McKee. After ten years as a Sabre he signed in St. Louis last year. Until the Canuck game he was a scratch in five straight though.

The National Hockey League was founded on this date in 1917 in Montreal after a series of disputes within the (Canadian) National Hockey Association (NHA), which would see the NHA suspend operations and the new NHL start play. Montreal fans will also remember this date in 1984 when Guy Lafleur retired after 14 years and 518 goals with the Canadiens. Relive the memories with this YouTube footage!

Another classic Habs moment happened on November 26, 1958 when Maurice "Rocket" Richard scored his 600th career goal at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The current roster of Montreal does not have a number 55 - but there is a # 54: Mikhail Grabovski. Like the Sabres' Jochan Hecht, he was born in Germany. Here in Kelowna we cheer local boy Josh Gorges on!

Sweet 16?

The 16th was sweet for the Sabres! A 4-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens! We play them in a home-and-home series next Friday
and Saturday so hopefully we will "french fry" them again...

"The French Connection" for Buffalo had their jerseys retired together on November 15, 1995. There were no number 16's playing
in the game last night as both have been retired:
Pat LaFontaine for Buffalo early last year and Henri Richard for the Habs in 1975. 16 could be considered bittersweet for Lafontaine as he suffered a career-ending head injury in a game vs. Ottawa on March 16, 1998.

The Vancouver Canucks had an easy 6-2 win last night against Minnesota and their popular #16 had his first goal of the season!
Trevor Linden is in his 16th season with the Canucks (19th overall).

Two not-so-sweet 16's went at it before their game last Saturday.
Here is the footage as we Ralph 'N' Roll WITh the Punches!

Colorado Conspiracy?

Just two NHL games today: Vancouver beat Columbus 4-1 and Minnesota edged Colorado 3-2. I am glad Columbus lost to my second favorite NHL team because my favorite team, the Buffalo Sabres, were shutout by Columbus on Friday 3-0.

My prediction of Buffalo beating Montreal yesterday 3-1 was way off! Montreal won 4-2. I was reminded of that fact after the game when my voiceover friend, Robert Jadah, emailed me with the headline:
The Habs and the Hab-Nots.



The link for this blog is: http://www.habsinsideout.com

Robert's favorite sport is baseball and tonight Colorado finally got an opponent for the World Series. Boston clobbered Cleveland tonight

11-2 and will host game one at Fenway Park Wednesday. The Red Sox won the last three games by a combined total of 30-5 against the Indians but Colorado is even hotter (unless you are talking about the weather) - winning 21 of their last 22 games.

The Sunday night NFL game saw Colorado conquer Pennsylvania as Denver got by Pittsburgh 31-28 on a last second 49-yard field goal by Jason Elam. The coach of the Broncos is Mike Shanahan while Mike Tomlin is the Steelers' coach. There seems to be a lot of coaches named Mike in the NFL: Others include Holmgren in Seattle, Nolan in San Francisco and McCarthy in Green Bay.

3 strikes and you're out - of town!

Buffalo lost tonight to Columbus 3-0. We have now won 3 and lost 3 games this year. The opening to last Saturday's game against Washington is featured above with 3 Sabres making cameos: Ryan Miller, Tim Connolly and Brian Campbell. Tim was plugged in my last blog entry as one of the good guys sporting number 19. I also mentioned Joe Sakic and Steve Yzerman and you can see both of them scoring their 500th career goals by clicking on the video links at this page.

It was 50 years ago today that Maurice "The Rocket" Richard became the first NHL'er to score 500 career goals. He did it on home ice for the Montreal Canadiens against the Chicago Black Hawks. Final score for the Habs then: 3-1. Tomorrow night the Sabres roll into Montreal and for old time's sake I will predict a 3-1 final - for Buffalo. Here is the MSG-TV opener I am about to record:
AFTER A FEROCIOUS DISPLAY OF OFFENSE FOR THE MAJORITY OF THEIR HOMESTAND...
THE SABRES LEAVE HOME ICE LIKE A LAMB....SILENCED BY COLUMBUS.

AND NOW...THE START OF AN EXTENDED ROAD TRIP.
FIRST STOP...QUEBEC.
THE START OF THE SEASON SERIES WITH THE CANADIENS IS NEXT...ON MSG!

Merci et Bonsoir...

Lucky Number 19!

My niece in Prince George, Nicole Johnson, turned 19 yesterday. Way to go Nic! On Wednesday my Dad turned 80. The birthday lunch featured the best chinese food I have ever had! Just don't try to get me using chopsticks:)

Here are some great players who wear number 19 and make their living with hockey sticks:
Joe Thornton of the San Jose Sharks. Number two in league scoring last season behind Sydney Crosby - and the number two overall pick by me in this year's annual London Drugs hockey pool, right after Sid the Kid. Joe plays his old team, the Boston Bruins, tonight.

Joe Sakic of the Colorado Avalanche. Number seven in the scoring race last season with an even 100. 1, 591 career points and counting entering action tonight.

Markus Naslund of the Vancouver Canucks. His best days are behind him but the Captain scored last night as the Canucks crushed Edmonton 5-2.

Tim Connolly of the Buffalo Sabres. Three points and first star in his last game. Sabres shut out Atlanta 6-0 two days ago.

One of the most famous number 19's is the retired Steve Yzerman. This is a tribute site for him. This link also shares some other famous 19's from the sports world.

With all this talk about 19's, I will have to blog again on Friday the 19th.
Aren't you glad yesterday was not a Friday the 13th? But for me, 13 and 14
are my lucky numbers.

Ho Ho Ho!!

HOme sweet HOme for the HOlidays! And I'm not talking about Santa...it is the Thanksgiving long weekend here in Canada. South of the border it is Columbus Day on Monday. Americans might not have a Columbus Day if Christopher Columbus had not been born in Italy. Out of pride for their native son, the Italian population of New York City organized the first celebration of the discovery of America on October 12, 1866. In 1905, Colorado became the first state to observe a Columbus Day. Over the next few decades other states followed. In 1937, then- President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed every October 12 as Columbus Day. Since 1971, it has been celebrated on the second Monday in October.

HOme sweet HOme for the Colorado Rockies. Thanks to HOme runs in each of the first two games against Philadelphia by possible season MVP Matt HOlliday and a super pitching performance by Canadian Jeff Francis in game one, the Rockies can roll into round two of the baseball playoffs with a win tomorrow at HOme against Ryan HOward (105 HOme runs the last 2 seasons!) and the Phillies.

HOckey sweet HOckey returns to Buffalo tonight! The new HDef video screens are in place at HSBC Arena as the New York Islanders pay a visit tonight. I will post my opening on MSG-TV soon I hope. Last Saturday I had the privilege of being the PA announcer for one of the area's junior hockey teams, the Westside Warriors. What a finish to the game against Powell River with the winning goal scored by Westside with just 5 seconds left! One of their radio announcers, Brett Mix, is a big Buffalo Sabres fan.
Have a great season boys!

HOops sweet HOops! My basketball league resumed last night.
Great exercise! Even better than the competitive tennis league I am a part of. HOpe YOU have a great season - whichever one life is throwing your way right now:) Keep your chin up!

Greg is THE Man!

As I mark my 1-year blogiversary I notice I have never blogged on a Saturday before. There must be something to the saying "Lazy Saturday."

My very first blog post mentioned one of my on hold employers: Greg Krantz. I've been very pleased with the volume of work Greg has thrown my way lately so I took the time this week to update my on hold messaging demo. It shows more of the conversational style that is important in this area.

I also put the pieces in place for an animation and character voices demo. That is an area that Greg Littlefield does a good job in. In fact, he was a Finalist in The Simpsons Sound Alike Contest through Voices.com. Greg started his blogging adventure this month and like me he will give you a mix of voiceover, sports and music. EARLY this morning, Gregg Zaun of the Toronto Blue Jays helped out Greg and his team, the Boston Red Sox, by homering in the 14th inning against the New York Yankees. 5-4 final for Canada's team! But this afternoon Toronto lost to the Yanks 12-11 in 10 innings. Gregg Zaun nailed one in the 10th inning but unfortunately it was foul! With a week left in the baseball season, the Red Sox are 2 1/2 games up on the Yankees for first place. Both will make the playoffs.

Hockey IS Canada's sport. Televised tonight was a Vancouver Canucks exhibition game against the San Jose Sharks. Vancouver lost 3-1. And I'm sorry for Greg Littlefield as his Boston Bruins lost by a 4-3 final to Toronto Maple Leafs. Again, only pre-season. The best junior hockey league around is the Western Hockey League. It has returned to Edmonton for the '07/08 season - the WHL's 42nd season...Littlefield and I are in our
43rd seasons:)
Edmonton beat the Kootenay Ice 4-3 on September 20 as the regular season was launched. Here is the movie trailer opening I did for the TV broadcast. This is my favorite WHL team.

I am really looking forward to doing the Buffalo Sabres' openings on
MSG-TV again this season. The first real games take place October 5th and 6th against the New York Islanders.

Duet with Dylan?

Deirdre from the voiceover bulletin board put up a cool link this afternoon to a site that allows you to send a message with Bob Dylan - sort of. So I got into the hockey mood here. I don't think Bob would mind as he was actually born in Minnesota, a state that is well known for it's support of high school, college and NHL hockey.

$$$Penguin Power + Horsepower

It has been a long time since I blogged. A couple of long projects have kept me busy lately. I recorded 15 stories totalling about 180 minutes for ProWEBRadio.com - including a 39-minute story on 2007 Senior Market Advisor of The Year: Craig Randall. I also did my first project for
a company that creates e-Learning programs for the financial services industry. I created over 110 audio files and the final length of my tutorial timed out at about 45-minutes. Both of my invoices ended up going to Pennsylvania. That's a long way from here - but not by email:)

Pennsylvania's Pittsburgh Penguins figure to be one of the NHL's best hockey teams in 2007/08. They will be playing outdoors in Buffalo on New Year's Day.

Club Penguin is one of the most popular kids' websites around. Their offices are here in Kelowna, BC and just over a month ago, the Walt Disney Company made the founders of Club Penguin multi-millionaires! INCREDIBLE! Many of my earliest corporate videos were done a long time ago with Dave Krysko of Club Penguin and his company New Horizon Productions. We used to record out of his home and he also had office space at one time with a local dentist.

This morning I did a couple of lines for an animated horse named Reason for a company in Ireland, who's client is in the US. The project is aimed at 6th grade students with learning difficulties to help them understand mathematical concepts in a fun environment. Lesson One today and four more to follow. It seems a long time ago that I was first approached about this project: July 18 - the last time I blogged here. But I will be back sooner this time as my 1-year blogiversary takes place September 22. You are all invited!

Bob Souer had his second blogiversary this past May. He will be spending a long, long time in the studio on a project he talks about here. I look forward to reading about your progress Bob!

FREEdom!

Happy July 4th!

On this date in 1776, the USA claimed its independence from Britain and Democracy was born. Every day thousands leave their homeland to come to the "land of the free and the home of the brave" so they can begin their American Dream.

My 16-year-old daughter, Ashley, flew into Reno last Saturday morning with her volleyball team to begin a week-long adventure across the border that will leave her with memories for a lifetime. You can view many photos here.

July 1st is Canada Day
It used to be known as Dominion Day, the First of July, Confederation Day and July the First. Canada wasn't born on July 1st, but the holiday celebrates the events that took place on this day. On July 1, 1867, the British North America Act created the Canadian federal government. This Act stated that Canada would become an independent dominion (territory) of England, which is why Canada Day was originally called Dominion Day until 1982.

July 1st FREE Agent FREnzy in the NHL

• The Sabres lose Daniel Briere (r) to the Philadelphia Flyers. Briere signed an eight-year deal with the Flyers worth $52 million dollars. That is a serious talent fee!
  
• The Sabres lose Chris Drury (l) to the New York Rangers. Sabres management stated that they were willing to match any offer to Drury, but were not given the opportunity. "Drury the DOOFUS" takes the DOLLARS totaling $35.25 million over 5 years.

On July 3rd, Dainius Zubrus got rich with a six year, $20.4-million contract in New Jersey. He only played 19 games with Buffalo last year after coming over from Washington.

The Sabres WILL survive! Keep the faith!

We've got some good guys steering the ship!======================================================

By the way, here is what Briere, Drury and Zubrus will look like after their new contracts finish:

Ought to Whine about Ottawa?

The answer is NO. They beat us fair and square in five games winning the series on our hectic moving day of May 19. Four games in the series were decided by a single goal.

But Ottawa could not handle the Anaheim Ducks in the Stanley Cup Final, falling in five. Things wrapped up two nights ago and Anaheim has some Buffalo tie-ins worth mentioning:

• Todd Marchant was born in Buffalo and got to hoist the Cup for the first time at age 33.
• Brad May was a 7-year Sabre and got to lift the Cup for the first time at age 35.
• Andrew Miller, brother of Sabres' super goalie Ryan, gets his name on Lord Stanley's hardware because he played two games in the finals. The 23-year-old was at Michigan State for the entirety of the regular season. Talk about being in the right place at the right time:)

I feel I have aged a lot in the last 3 weeks:) We moved after 15 years to a
more teenager-friendly home in Kelowna. There were problems with the movers and they did not get paid for almost two weeks. There are also contract items that were not looked after by the previous homeowner and I had to meet with our real estate agent and her boss two days ago to see how to resolve the issue.

How Old Do You Think I Am? Visit The Age Project and do a guess. I found this fun site tonight thanks to my friend, Dave Carrol. Be nice in your guess...I like to think I am aging well like a fine wine...now that sounds like a fine whine!

Ought to Win versus Ottawa!

We are coming up to game time in Buffalo as the Sabres are in the semifinals against Ottawa.
I am predicting it will take 6 games to move onto the finals and I
posted this at Peter's blog in Buffalo.

Have you seen and heard the Sabres' theme song for the playoff run?
Feature producer Matt Gould spent a couple weeks putting that together. Well worth the wait:)

15 years ago a Vancouver band named 54•40 put out a great album named "Dear Dear" and it included a catchy song named "Nice To Luv You." The chorus goes like this:
Nice to luv you baby
With all my heart and soul
Nice to luv you baby
No matter where I go

I would like to see them remix it for Sabre fans:
Nice to luv you SABRES
With all my heart and soul
Nice to luv you SABRES
No matter where I go

I am going to drop 54•40 an email about this. They are big hockey fans and are taking part in the Memorial Cup Celebrations in Vancouver May 18. That is where the top 4 teams in Canadian Junior hockey battle it out for number one!

“Go to” guys! No eGos here

Here are some clutch “Go To” guys I’d want on my Team:

Roberto LuonGo: He ain't NO GOat! He's great and the only reason the Vancouver Canucks survived the NHL playoffs until last night. Thanks for coming to Buffalo in January. Click here to see my MSG-TV intro for that game. Go golfing now Mr. LuonGo!

Travis Moen: Got an assist on the first goal last night against Vancouver and scored the overtime winner in the game before that! Played junior hockey here in Kelowna. How could ChicaGo let this guy get away to the Ducks?

Bob Souer: The best voiceover blog around celebrated it's two-year blogiversary this week. You can see some of the many folks like myself who thanked Bob on this special occasion.

Ross Huguet – GO 2 Productions is the result of a merger between
One Stop Voice Shop and Gener8 Creations. I worked with Ross in radio
and he and his right-hand man, Jim Ptycia, helped me get off on the right foot a couple of years ago when I ventured into voiceover. Online video is in the mainstream now so best of luck to Go 2 Productions as they help all kinds of companies with their branding.

“May Day! May Day!”...Moving day

Welcome to May!

Rick Jeanneret's famous “May Day! May Day!” call from 1993 can be listened to here.

It's actually my fault the Sabres lost Sunday in double overtime:)
I was emceeing the local kickoff to the minor baseball league season in town and did not have a chance to watch one second of the game. Sabres still lead the Rangers 2 games to 1 with Game 4 tonight in the Big Apple. I will be glued to the tube...

The first pitch was thrown out by Brent Gilchrist, who had a long NHL career and won the Cup with Detroit in '98. The current coach in Detroit, Mike Babcock, played junior hockey in Kelowna just like Brent. The Red Wings are the #1 seed in the West but currently trail San Jose 2 games to 1. One of the coaches for a young baseball team I introduced was another former NHL'er, Dixon Ward, who had his best years in Buffalo.

Our family has enjoyed 15 great years in our current home but last month we sold it and found a new one that has a better set up for my home studio. Other positives include the kids' rooms all being downstairs, a more central location, Grandma close by and we are not too far from my brother-in-law Darren and his family. Darren is turning 40 in a few days. Happy Birthday Darren!
You'll be pleased to know I'm renewing my Sports Illustrated subscription and you can borrow them any time...

Playoff Predictions...take a shot!

My voiceover friend in Buffalo, Peter O'Connell, has picked the Sabres to move on to the Final Four. I am hoping for the same results and Peter and I have said the New York Rangers will not survive past six games. You can see our bold predictions here along with Peter's story about "political interference."

Have some fun and let me know how you think the playoff road will turn out...
by the way, if the Sabres fall short, it's all Peter's fault...
Spoken like a true politician, eh?

Hockey ain't hokey!

Howdy partner!

Round 2 of the NHL playoffs starts Wednesday night as the Buffalo Sabres host the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks visit Anaheim. The Sabres got by the Islanders in round one 4 games to 1 and the Canucks survived a seven game series versus Dallas with a 4-1 win Monday night. Dallas' only goal came from Joel Lundqvist - brother of the Rangers' great goalie, Henrik Lundqvist.

Country music is popular in Dallas, Nashville and Calgary. But the pro hockey teams in those cities all got eliminated in the first round. Ouch!

The basketball team in Dallas - the Mavericks - were the top ranked NBA team this year with 67 wins, 6 more than the Phoenix Suns and former Dallas star, Steve Nash. Stevie "Wonder" and the Suns currently lead Kobe and the LA Lakers 2-0 in their opening round series while Dallas needs to bounce back against Golden State Wednesday to even their series at one apiece.

Can you believe the Dallas Mavericks Ownership Group landed its 767 luxury jet at the airport here in Kelowna last Tuesday for a major overhaul?

Here you can see the overhaul the basketball logo took after 20 years in 2001:

"Wheel Of Fortune"

The Sabres clinched the 2007 Presidents' Trophy as the top team in the league with their 2-0 shutout victory over the Washington Capitals two days ago. The Presidents' Trophy guarantees the Sabres home-ice advantage throughout the entirety of the 2007 Stanley Cup Playoffs. That is good fortune I hope:)

The Buffalo jumble of letters offers some unique words, like FLUB, which I hope is not going to happen against their first round opponent, the New York Islanders. I am hoping those guys will play more like Gilligan's Islanders...FLOB is British slang for spitting, FLAB is not FAB if you are dieting...LOAF means to loiter or lounge around in an idle way. Our cat (camouflaged on the bed covers) is a perfect illustration of that, wouldn't you agree?

If we get another cat, I would want to call her Sabre Cat. But the one we have is named Bunzo. She makes us LAFF a lot...

Congrats to my sister-in-law, Sandra, and hubby Lewis Johnson. They recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. This Easter weekend they got a new car: a Toyota FJ Cruiser.

By the way, I am now listed at: CarDealerSpots.com. Last month I finished second in the running to become the branding voice of this trucking firm in Texas.

You can't win 'em all but it is fun to be in the game...I think I'll start my own car company: HASSER

TV interview

Well, it is time to take "our" blogging relationship to the next level. The last 2 blog entries have featured photos of yours truly BUT now you can see and hear me in this TV interview aired locally on Shaw Cable 11 and the show "Okanagan Today." It was produced by Tim Morton - a true Sabres fan...he has a tattoo to prove it:) My thanks also go out to the producer of "On The Adventure Trail", Kelly Veltri, who's technical expertise compressed this footage for the worldwide web. Kelly is a longtime Pittsburgh Penguins fan and they could be battling Buffalo for the title of best team in the Eastern conference. Beginning play tonight, Buffalo is on top while Pittsburgh is in fifth. Kudos of course to Feature Producer Matt Gould of the Sabres for writing those excellent opening scripts and mixing the video footage and graphics for MSG-TV.
I mailed Matt a CD with the interview but I'll email him the YouTube link tomorrow morning when I email him the mp3 voice file opening for the Saturday night game versus the Toronto Maple Leafs. Business associates I communicated with today on other projects got the YouTube link already. They include Edmonton's Chris Wait (a BIG Chicago Blackhawks fan), Chicago's Darren Callahan and Texas' Jason Gutierrez. As I leave you, it's 2-0 Buffalo against Montreal seven minutes in, 2-2 Pittsburgh and Carolina and Chicago losing 2-0 after one period to Detroit...some things NEVER change Chris!

Brewin' up a storm!

Daniel Briere just had his second ever career hat trick as the Sabres stopped the Boston Bruins cold in their tracks 7-1! The opening on
MSG-TV had me read:
Two straight third period letdowns...
A losing record for the month of January...
It’s been a rough stretch...that has Lindy looking for answers.

Tonight...
Buffalo gets a top blue-liner back...
While another will get a few looks up front.

The Sabres try to snap a slump..
Part one of two against Boston....NEXT on MSG!!!

When I sent my voice file back to Feature Producer/Writer Matt Gould I included this note:
Hi Matt,
Enjoyed your footage from the All-Star game!
Hope Briere leads like an All-Star tonight…maybe Miller needs a haircut:)

Well, Ryan Miller had the night off in net...don't know if he got a haircut during the game or not..
Daniel Briere's first career hat trick was only last month (December 5) in Tampa Bay. He was the MVP last week at the All-Star game in Dallas and you can see Matt's footage and hear his narration when you go to Multimedia at http://www.sabres.com. You become an Insider simply by registering your email address.

Last week I was interviewed for a TV show called "Okanagan Today" with Shaw TV host Tim Morton. The 3:40 second segment began running last Thursday night after 6 PM in a rotation right through the weekend. It was only on January 12 that I received a copy of my MSG-TV openings through 2006 from Matt in the mail. Like Matt, Tim did an excellent job of editing game footage and great graphics with a story on me and our favorite hockey team of all-time:
the Buffalo Sabres!
I will try to get a link up shortly to the story so the Sabres become your favorite team too .